1. Technical Field
The invention relates in general to the fields of emergency transport devices and, more particularly, to a device for emergency transport of pediatric patients adapted to engage rails of a conventional stretcher, and accessories therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Medical personnel, such as emergency medical technicians, often transport injured children to and between medical facilities. During transport, medical personnel may be required to stabilize injured children using either medical equipment such as EKG's or Intravenous Lines or via hands-on procedures such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation. To avoid further injuring these children, medical personnel must transport them using safe equipment. Consequently, medical personnel need both a safe way to transport children and the flexibility of performing a variety of medical procedures, as needed.
In addition to those needs, medical personnel may also transport individuals ranging in age from a newborn baby to an elderly individual. To accommodate such a diverse group, medical personnel require the ability to effectively secure both adults and children during transport. It is, however, the ability to safely and effectively transport small children that causes the greatest challenge to the medical professional. For example, a seven-pound, eighteen-inch newborn baby differs significantly from a thirty-pound, forty-inch child. As a result, the transport equipment must accommodate children of varying size. Because this equipment may be used when the lives of these individuals are failing, it should operate efficiently. In addition, space limitations in an ambulance, for example, demand easy storage for this equipment. Therefore, medical personnel need equipment that adjusts to children of varying size, operates efficiently, and stores easily.
In response to some of the above-listed needs, medical personnel currently transport children by securing them via various means to a stretcher. One method is accomplished by securing the child directly to the stretcher via use of the stretcher's straps (using the same method they would use to secure and adult). This method uses a typical stretcher that operates efficiently and stores easily. Yet, typical or conventional stretchers do not transport children safely. Usually medical personnel cannot apply enough tension to the straps to safely restrain a child. In addition, the location of the straps may impair medical personnel from performing life-saving procedures. Additionally, since a small child may be still somewhat mobile, they are at risk of incurring additional injuries during the transport. As a consequence, strapping a child directly to a stretcher does not adequately meet the needs of medical personnel.
Similarly, strapping a mother who holds a child to a stretcher does not satisfy the above-mentioned needs. Though this technique uses equipment that operates efficiently and stores easily, it hinders safe transport. If the ambulance stops suddenly and the mother releases the child, the child may “fly forward” in the ambulance causing further injury. If the mother is successful in “holding on” to her child, the child can still be injured, if the mother's weight is thrown forward crushing the child against the seatbelt. In addition, the technique of “holding the child” accommodates children of varying size only to the extent that the mother can hold them. Finally, because the mother's hands cover a portion of the child, she impairs the administration of medical treatment on that area. Thus, strapping a mother with child fails to meet the needs of medical personnel.
Further, strapping a typical car seat that holds a child to a stretcher also fails to meet the needs of medical personnel. Though the car seat can adapt to children of varying size, this method impairs safe transport. Since the seat belts in an automobile differ from the straps on a stretcher, and the shape of a car seat differs from the shape of a stretcher, the car seat does not attach securely to the stretcher. This lack of security threatens safety by creating the potential for the car seat to shift or come loose during transport. In addition, the car seat impairs the administration of medical procedures. For example, a paramedic may need to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Since a child in the car seat cannot lay flat, the paramedic must remove the child from the car seat and begin compressions with the child in his arms. By removing the child from the seat, medical personnel threaten the safety of the child.
In response to the failures of the above-mentioned techniques for transporting injured children, alternative types of pediatric restraining devices have been developed. For example, one device secures to a stretcher using straps. It includes a bendable support mattress secured in a given angular position by leg supports. Medical personnel secure the injured child to the support mattress after this device is attached to the stretcher. While this device provides some improvement, it impairs administration of CPR. In addition, connecting this device to the stretcher using belts demands that medical personnel spend additional time securing the device.
Another pediatric device provides a hard frame with rotating side panels. It attaches to a stretcher with straps and stores in a collapsed position. Though the collapsibility feature enables easy storage, this pediatric device is difficult to attach to the stretcher. Medical personnel sacrifice time in securing the device to the stretcher. In addition, using straps create the potential that the device may move during transport. This potential movement can hinder performance of lifesaving medical procedures. Although this device includes a restraining feature that confines the child to the device, this feature does not adjust to children of varying size.
In sum, previous pediatric emergency transport devices do not transport safely, enable performance of medical procedures, operate efficiently, adapt to children of varying size, and store easily. Therefore, they do not satisfy all of the needs of medical personnel. When responding to a call, medical personnel should be equipped adequately to provide the medical attention necessary to stabilize and transport any type of patient, including children. They must gather the equipment needed and provide the required medical treatment, including CPR, in a limited amount of time. Thus, there is a need for a device for the emergency transport of pediatric patients that satisfies all of the above-mentioned needs.
Yet further, when a child is critically injured, (i.e. a head or neck injury, or typically any injury where a child has lost consciousness and there is the potential that a spinal injury may have occurred) emergency medical technicians must immobilize the patient, often securing the neck first with a cervical collar, and then the entire body to a rigid surface (typically a backboard) to prevent movement that could cause further injury to the neck or spinal column. Currently, such backboards are then secured onto a stretcher via straps, and the child is transported in an ambulance (or depending on the severity of injury, airlifted via Life-Flight helicopter) to an emergency care facility. Treatment is provided en-route to the facility by the on-board EMT or paramedic. This procedure, while effective, can still be improved upon.
Additionally, to treat a pediatric patient, medical technicians must use pediatric supplies (i.e. Pulse-Ox equipment, IV catheters, intubation tubes, etc.) on a pediatric patient. Unless the vehicle dispatched is from a child-specific emergency facility, these supplies are often mixed in with adult supplies, and precious life-saving seconds can be wasted, trying to locate them during a trauma call. Additionally, medical technicians today must rely on either the parent or doctor to provide accurate weight information prior to the transport, or the use of a Broselow tape if one is available, to estimate the weight of a child in order to administer medications at the proper dosages. Lack of accurate weight information may lead an emergency technician to under or over-medicate the pediatric patient. Therefore, while an emergency technician who secures a pediatric patient to a backboard may now have the ability to secure a pediatric patient safely for transport, such technician does not have an efficient means of accessing pediatric supplies for treatment en-route or obtaining accurate weight information to properly administer medications. The device of the present invention not only allows a medical technician quickly to access all pediatric supplies from a single location and obtain an accurate measurement of a pediatric patient's weight, it also enables immobilization of the pediatric patient on a backboard.
An additional challenge to transporting a pediatric patient is comfort and sanitation. A child being transported in an emergency situation is often frightened and may often have an injury that causes the release of bodily fluids. In some embodiments, the device of the present invention can be designed primarily with safety in mind, rather than comfort. Such an embodiment includes only minimal padding to ensure that life-saving procedures can be provided directly on the device, without removing the pediatric patient from the restraints. Such minimal padding is not designed to be cushioned, nor to resist the transfer of bodily fluids. Therefore there is a need for another embodiment of the present invention in which an additional pad can be placed between the child and the device to provide an extra measure of comfort to a child in an already stressful situation, as well as to resist the transfer of any bodily fluids that may be secreted. Preferably, such additional pad will not interfere with use of the device's existing harness restraint system and may be easily removed by the emergency technician, without removing the restraints from the child, should life saving measures be required en-route.